Saturday, August 13, 2011

Shibboleth Lover

If you don't already know it, I have a problem about the way fantasy tends to use 'race' when it talks about culture.   Primativism, tribalism etc are conflated into a set of stereotypes which would be clearly racist if applied to a real world group of people.

But are there limits to this?  Are all fantasy races just people in funny costumes?  Are there times where a truly alien part of your biology makes you act and think differently to human beings?

Enter the Shibboleth, my beast men whose biological drive to mate and produce progeny drives their culture and their actions.  While not truly evil, they are dangerous and humans have a good reason to be afraid of them.

Through the Shibboleth I'm trying to test the limits of race where you have something we don't have in our world - sentient beings that are biologically different from us.  They are the selfish gene gone wild, nature bloody in tooth and claw.  But, do they are have potential to overcome?  Can nurture win over nature?  These are, I think, really interesting questions.

Friday, August 12, 2011

This is a taboo?

On Y! Gallery they are debating whether toddler porn should be allowed, and yet this image can't be uploaded.

Gotta wonder about priorities sometimes.

Still, it's nice to be controversial with so little effort, but what is the problem with bisexuality anyway? 

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Lord Gildanesq

Another piece of character design, this is the young version of Gildanesq when he was the dashing bronze age hero, before the crazy, the genocide and the enslaving began.   He's Raul's father btw.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Crafter designs

I've dug out some of my sketches done in the development of the Crafter folk.  These guys fit in my Dwarf niche - element earth based people who are good at making stuff and primal magic.  Trying to move away from the Tolkien/fantasy/Disney dwarf archetype which I know some people love (beard daddies!) but don't really do a thing for me.

The Crafters are shapeshifters who build bodies out of primal elemental matter as they need them.  Gender is arbitrary and they can make all kinds of wonderful new organs on the fly.  Still thinking through what this means for a porn comic!  Of course I won't be able to post any of this on Y! Gallery.  They are debating whether toddler porn should be allowed and yet bisexual porn is forbidden - what is up with that?

Also trying to get away from the whole Wagner thing too.